(From the article): Persuasive people are adept at reading and responding to other people. They rely heavily on emotional intelligence (EQ) to bring people to their way of thinking. With 90% of top performers high in emotional intelligence, it's no wonder that persuasive people rely on this skill to get ahead. Add these skills to your repertoire, and you're on your way to joining this exclusive group.

If you’ve ever been introduced by someone and cringed, you’ve felt first-hand why it’s so important to get introductions right.

donhornsby's insight:

What makes a good introduction? Good introductions are genuine, thoughtful, and considered. They are made with goodwill and intention. When you are on the receiving end of a good introduction, you know it.

A lot of what makes a successful CEO can't be measured, and when your one of the few women CEOs the path is even less clear.

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): Rowlands looks at leadership development much the way she views her work to transform ReachLocal: an opportunity. "None of us are perfect," she maintains, "The biggest way people grow is through self-examination."

(From the article): Obviously, the biggest insight comes from the answers to question #3. Clearly, the best bosses, male or female, are the bosses who recognize their people the most. In fact, findings from a recent global study by the Cicero Group show that 89% of employees who are recognized reported feeling a greater sense of drive and determination. And 81% felt a greater connection to the company. With this kind of data, maybe it’s time to stop analyzing chromosomes and leadership, and instead focus on measuring activities of leadership.

Try these strategies to boost employee engagement and productivity and keep your best people around.

donhornsby's insight:

Lead by example!

(From the article): Last, but certainly not least, lead by example. Model the leadership skills employees need to adopt in order to become great leaders: professionalism, transparency, confidence, commitment and respect. Employees look to their employers for answers, so leaders should aim to continuously model what it is to be a successful, positive model in the workplace. It doesn’t cost a dime and the results are priceless.

Some aspects of organizational culture are visible on the surface, like the tip of an iceberg, while others are implicit and submerged within the organization. Because these ingrained assumptions are tacit and below the surface, they are not easy to see or deal with, although they affect everything the organization does.

Changing an organization’s culture is one of the most difficult leadership challenges. That’s because an organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions.

The elements fit together as an mutually reinforcing system and combine to prevent any attempt to change it.

Business is not a sport. But great coaching is just as important to success in the office as on the field. Over the years, HBR has interviewed some of the world’s top athletic coaches. We mined our archives for a few of their best insights that apply to employees and players alike.

donhornsby's insight:

Be prepared and expect the same of your team.Adjust your style to each of your employees’ needs. What works for one person could be detrimental to another. Figure out the best approach for each by watching your employees in action.Choose encouragement over criticism; but when you must criticize, give feedback as soon after the event as possible. Be honest but compassionate, then move on.Have high expectations. Believe in your team.Don’t ignore or sideline underperformers — your team is only as good as your weakest member. Instead, help them improve.Make progress tangible. Set clear goals and milestones, and celebrate when you hit them.

(From the article): In conclusion, persistence is an important part of life. It’s separates the complete from the incomplete, the wise from the unwise, and just to recap, here are the 5 reasons why having persistence pays off:

Most success people have failed at least oncePeople like to test you on persistenceWhat comes easily normally isn’t worth itKnowledge isn’t gained without persistenceThe more you do something, the better you get at it

I am a small business owner and just like many other people in my situation I struggle with the same everyday problems. One of the worst problems I had to deal with were the business meetings me and my team used to have. I thought that these meetings are essential to an organization so we used to hold them regularly, often without good reason. I’m saying this is one of the worst problems I had to deal with because I didn’t know it was a problem until it was almost too late. Here’s what I did to solve it:

donhornsby's insight:

I guarantee you that if you follow my advice you will be able to improve your business meetings too. If you need some extra help you can also get one of the readily available software solutions such as Pronestor, YaRooms and GetaRoomdeveloped for instance. These will make every aspect of organizing meetings a breeze.

(From the article): I guarantee you that if you follow my advice you will be able to improve your business meetings too. If you need some extra help you can also get one of the readily available software solutions such as Pronestor, YaRooms and GetaRoomdeveloped for instance. These will make every aspect of organizing meetings a breeze.

Apologies can be one of the more difficult things to do. That's why I'm going to show you an effective way to apologize. You're going to love it.

donhornsby's insight:

The art of giving an sincere and genuine apology is difficult. Here are some great suggestions on how to do it in an authentic manner.

(From the article): I think this is a very effective way of apologizing and I’m going to begin working towards these steps as I make mistakes and need to apologize to those I lead and serve. While I may not be perfect and I may not succeed every time, I will make progress and that’s why I wanted to share this message today.

Historically, leaders achieved their position by virtue of experience on the job and in-depth knowledge. They were expected to have answers and to readily provide them when employees were unsure about what to do or how to do it. The leader was the person who knew the most, and that was the basis of their authority.

Leaders today still have to understand their business thoroughly, but it’s unrealistic and ill-advised to expect them to have all the answers. Organizations are simply too complex for leaders to govern on that basis. One way for leaders to adjust to this shift is to adopt a new role: that of coach. By using coaching methods and techniques in the right situations, leaders can still be effective without knowing all the answers and without telling employees what to do.

(From the article): When you coach as a leader you don’t need to be the expert. You don’t need to be the smartest or most experienced person in the room. And you don’t need to have all the solutions. But you do need to be able to connect with people, to inspire them to do their best, and to help them search inside and discover their own answers.

Learn what the latest neuroscience studies reveal about the importance of emotions to successful leadership in today's organizations.

donhornsby's insight:

Our emotions not only influence what our brain focuses on, but it can also completely change how we remember details. This is an important key for all leaders to be mindful in their roles.

(From the article): Ultimately, what this comes down to and what the various studies from the neuroscience field help us to better appreciate is that our leadership is not defined by us, but through the memories and experiences of those we lead.

And this brings us back to the fundamental truth of succeeding at leadership today – that it’s not about serving our own wants and needs, but about how we can help those under our care to attain that level of success and fulfillment that fuels their drive to do better and to be better going forward.

These findings also cement the truth of why the command-and-control style of leadership is no longer effective given how we can’t lean on our positional authority to assume our perspective and memories are correct [Share on Twitter].

In the 1980s we were told that profit was king. The whole economy was restructured to put this focus before all else, on the basis that if we did that right then everything else would follow. But the reality is very different. Profit itself follows from putting a sense of wider purpose first, and from looking after people in the way that such a purpose ensures.

(From the article): "Rather than fooling themselves, or us, we should want our leaders to represent the truth, even when it makes their jobs harder," he says. "That is, after all, one of the great missions to which we entrust them: to take the complex information and broad vantage point to which they have access and convey it to the rest of us in a useful way. Doing so represents authentic and courageous leadership, even if it means being less certain."

There's no question that life seems to have reached a breakneck pace in recent years. This state of affairs seems to be linked with the ability of technology to deliver ever-increasing stores of accessible information.

We long ago entered the Information Age, but can we continue to endlessly process more and more?

donhornsby's insight:

“We’re losing something of great value, a way of thinking and moving through time that can be summed up in a single word: depth. Depth of thought and feeling, depth in our relationships, our work and everything we do. Since depth is what makes life fulfilling and meaningful, it’s astounding that we’re allowing this to happen.” —William Powers

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